Delivery takes approximately 7-12 business days.

This title is in stock with our Australian supplier and will be ordered in for you asap. We will send you a confirmation email with a Tracking Code to follow the progress of your parcel when it ships.

Medusa's Hair Author: Gananath Obeyesekere

ISBN: 9780226616018 Format: Paperback Number Of Pages: 232 Published: 17 December 1980 Country of Publication: US Dimensions (cm): 21.6 x 14.0 x 1.5 Description: The great pilgrimage center of southeastern Sri Lanka, Kataragama, has become in recent years the spiritual home of a new class of Hindu-Buddhist religious devotees. These ecstatic priests and priestesses invariably display long locks of matted hair, and they express their devotion to the gods through fire walking, tongue-piercing, hanging on hooks, and trance-induced prophesying. The increasing popularity of these ecstatics poses a challenge not only to orthodox Sinhala Buddhism (the official religion of Sri Lanka) but also, as Gananath Obeyesekere shows, to the traditional anthropological and psychoanalytic theories of symbolism. Focusing initially on one symbol, matted hair, Obeyesekere demonstrates that the conventional distinction between personal and cultural symbols is inadequate and naive. His detailed case studies of ecstatics show that there is always a reciprocity between the personal-psychological dimension of the symbol and its public, culturally sanctioned role. "Medusa's Hair" thus makes an important theoretical contribution both to the anthropology of individual experience and to the psychoanalytic understanding of culture. In its analy...

Returns Policy: 30-day money back guarantee for return if the item is not as described, is damaged or is faulty. We do not offer a refund if you change your mind.

Customs Charges & Duties: Orders over the value of $270 will be liable for customs charges, taxes including GST and brokerage costs which are the recipient's sole responsibility.